Sidra Smith is on a mission to seek out the following Ryan Coogler or Ava DuVernay—a.k.a. the following Black storyteller. And thru the creation of the inaugural ESSENCE Film Festival, she’s set to just do that. “That is one other dope thing that ESSENCE is bringing to Black culture,” says Smith, executive producer, Essence Studios. “We’re excited to proceed to serve Black women deeply.”
The vision for Essence Studios, when it was launched in 2020, was to construct a streaming platform filled with original programming to support emerging artists on a worldwide scale. But just because the team set to work on creating this robust digital hub, COVID-19 hit.
Nonetheless, there was a silver lining. Smith and her crew were capable of transform the events that were speculated to occur in person into virtual offerings that would continue to exist the platform. First up was a Wellness House chat, with experts conversing about every little thing from meal prep to mental health.
The success of that event set off a domino effect of booming content on the platform. Show Me Your Walk: HBCU Edition, a commencement celebration, was launched next, followed by the women-led Entrepreneur Summit: Bossed-Up Edition and the male-focused Dear Black Men. Then the studio was tasked with bottling the intoxicating energy of the ESSENCE Festival of Culture Presented by Coca-Cola (EFOC) right into a virtual event, which it did successfully for 2 years.
This summer, EFOC is back in person for the primary time since 2019—and with a latest element: a movie festival giving Black creators the chance to showcase their talent in front of the community for whom their art was created.
“The enjoyment for me is all of those emerging filmmakers who’re going to have the ability to say they premiered their movie on the ESSENCE Festival of Culture in Recent Orleans,” Smith says. “That’s the audience for the stories that we’re attempting to tell.”
One other exciting aspect for Smith is the chance to coach festivalgoers concerning the ways wherein Black people can contribute behind the scenes. “Lots of people of color aren’t seen in costume design, catering, craft services, cinematography and transportation,” she says, “We’re using a big a part of the film festival to encourage people of color to go after a few of those jobs.”
After the film festival’s coming-out party within the Big Easy, the goal is for it to exist annually outside of EFOC. Smith adds that she also wants the event to turn into a destination for distributors to purchase content from our community.
“Essence Studios is here for emerging storytellers,” she says. “We would like to nurture and support creators of color. Our goal is to support individuals who would never otherwise have a possibility to essentially be seen.”
No Comments
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.